libocamlnet-ocaml-dev 4.0.4-1build3 / usr / lib / ocaml / netstring / netconversion.mli

(* $Id: netconversion.mli 2195 2015-01-01 12:23:39Z gerd $
 * ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 *)

(** Conversion between character encodings 
 *
 * {b Contents}
 * {ul
 *   {- {!Netconversion.preliminaries}
 *     {ul
 *       {- {!Netconversion.unicode}}
 *       {- {!Netconversion.subsets}}
 *       {- {!Netconversion.linking}}
 *       {- {!Netconversion.domain}}
 *       {- {!Netconversion.problems}}}}
 *   {- {!Netconversion.interface}
 *     {ul
 *       {- {!Netconversion.direct_conv}}
 *       {- {!Netconversion.cursors}
 *           {ul {- {!Netconversion.bom}}}}
 *       {- {!Netconversion.unicode_functions}}
 *     }
 *   }
 * }
 *)


(** {1:preliminaries Preliminaries}
 *
 * A {b character set} is a set of characters where every character is
 * identified by a {b code point}. An {b encoding} is a way of 
 * representing characters from a set in byte strings. For example,
 * the Unicode character set has more than 96000 characters, and
 * the code points have values from 0 to 0x10ffff (not all code points
 * are assigned yet). The UTF-8 encoding represents the code points
 * by sequences of 1 to 4 bytes. There are also encodings that 
 * represent code points from several sets, e.g EUC-JP covers four
 * sets.
 *
 * Encodings are enumerated by the type [encoding], and names follow
 * the convention [`Enc_*], e.g. [`Enc_utf8]. 
 * Character sets are enumerated by the type
 * [charset], and names follow the convention [`Set_*], e.g.
 * [`Set_unicode].
 *
 * This module deals mainly with encodings. It is important to know
 * that the same character set may have several encodings. For example,
 * the Unicode character set can be encoded as UTF-8 or UTF-16.
 * For the 8 bit character sets, however, there is usually only one
 * encoding, e.g [`Set_iso88591] is always encoded as [`Enc_iso88591].
 *
 * In a {b single-byte encoding} every code point is represented by
 * one byte. This is what many programmers are accustomed at, and
 * what the O'Caml language specially supports: A [string] is
 * a sequence of [char]s, where [char] means an 8 bit quantity
 * interpreted as character. For example, the following piece of code allocates
 * a [string] of four [char]s, and assigns them individually:
 *
 * {[
 * let s = String.create 4 in
 * s.[0] <- 'G';
 * s.[1] <- 'e';
 * s.[2] <- 'r';
 * s.[3] <- 'd';
 * ]}
 * 
 * In a {b multi-byte encoding} there are code points that are represented
 * by several bytes. As we still represent such text as [string], the
 * problem arises that a single [char], actually a byte, often represents 
 * only a fraction of a full multi-byte character. There are two solutions:
 * - Give up the principle that text is represented by [string].
 *   This is, for example, the approach chosen by [Camomile], another O'Caml
 *   library dealing with Unicode. Instead, text is represented as
 *   [int array]. This way, the algorithms processing the text can
 *   remain the same.
 * - Give up the principle that individual characters can be directly
 *   accessed in a text. This is the primary way chosen by Ocamlnet.
 *   This means that there is not any longer the possibility to read
 *   or write the [n]th character of a text. One can, however, still 
 *   compose texts by just concatenating the strings representing
 *   individual characters. Furthermore, it is possible to define
 *   a cursor for a text that moves sequentially along the text.
 *   The consequence is that programmers are restricted to sequential
 *   algorithms. Note that the majority of text processing falls into
 *   this class.
 *
 * The corresponding piece of code for Ocamlnet's Unicode implementation
 * is:
 * {[
 * let b = Buffer.create 80 in
 * Buffer.add b (ustring_of_uchar `Enc_utf8 71);  (* 71 = code point of 'G' *)
 * Buffer.add b (ustring_of_uchar `Enc_utf8 101); (* 101 = code point of 'e' *)
 * Buffer.add b (ustring_of_uchar `Enc_utf8 114); (* 114 = code point of 'r' *)
 * Buffer.add b (ustring_of_uchar `Enc_utf8 100); (* 100 = code point of 'd' *)
 * let s = Buffer.contents b
 * ]}
 *
 * It is important to always remember that a [char] is no longer 
 * a character but simply a byte. In many of the following explanations,
 * we strictly distinguish between {b byte positions} or {b byte counts},
 * and {b character positions} or {b character counts}.
 *
 * There a number of special effects that usually only occur in
 * multi-byte encodings:
 *
 * - Bad encodings: Not every byte sequence is legal. When scanning
 *   such text, the functions will raise the exception [Malformed_code]
 *   when they find illegal bytes.
 * - Unassigned code points: It may happen that a byte sequence is
 *   a correct representation for a code point, but that the code point
 *   is unassigned in the character set. When scanning, this is also
 *   covered by the exception [Malformed_code]. When converting from
 *   one encoding to another, it is also possible that the code point
 *   is only unassigned in the target character set. This case is
 *   usually handled by a substitution function [subst], and if no such
 *   function is defined, by the exception [Cannot_represent].
 * - Incomplete characters: The trailing bytes of a string may be the
 *   correct beginning of a byte sequence for a character, but not a
 *   complete sequence. Of course, if that string is the end of a
 *   text, this is just illegal, and also a case for [Malformed_code].
 *   However, when text is processed chunk by chunk, this phenomenon
 *   may happen legally for all chunks but the last. For this reason,
 *   some of the functions below handle this case specially.
 * - Byte order marks: Some encodings have both big and little endian
 *   variants. A byte order mark at the beginning of the text declares
 *   which variant is actually used. This byte order mark is a 
 *   declaration written like a character, but actually not a 
 *   character.
 *
 * There is a special class of encodings known as {b ASCII-compatible}.
 * They are important because there are lots of programs and protocols
 * that only interpret bytes from 0 to 127, and treat the bytes from
 * 128 to 255 as data. These programs can process texts as long as
 * the bytes from 0 to 127 are used as in ASCII. Fortunately, many
 * encodings are ASCII-compatible, including UTF-8.
 *
 * {2:unicode Unicode}
 *
 * [Netconversion] is centred around Unicode.
 * The conversion from one encoding to another works by finding the
 * Unicode code point of the character
 * to convert, and by representing the code point in the target encoding,
 * even if neither encodings have to do with Unicode.
 * Of course, this approach requires that all character sets handled
 * by [Netconversion] are subsets of Unicode.
 *
 * The supported range of Unicode code points: 0 to 0xd7ff, 0xe000 to 0xfffd,
 * 0x10000 to 0x10ffff. All these code points can be represented in 
 * UTF-8 and UTF-16. [Netconversion] does not know which of the code
 * points are assigned and which not, and because of this, it simply
 * allows all code points of the mentioned ranges (but for other character
 * sets, the necessary lookup tables exist).
 *
 * {b UTF-8:} The UTF-8 representation can have one to four bytes. Malformed 
 *   byte sequences are always rejected, even those that want to cheat the
 *   reader like "0xc0 0x80" for the code point 0. There is special support
 *   for the Java variant of UTF-8 ([`Enc_java]). [`Enc_utf8] strings must not
 *   have a byte order mark (it would be interpreted as "zero-width space"
 *   character). However, the Unicode standard allows byte order marks
 *   at the very beginning of texts; use [`Enc_utf8_opt_bom] in this case.
 *
 * {b UTF-16:} When reading from a string encoded as [`Enc_utf16], a byte
 *   order mark is expected at the beginning. The detected variant 
 *   ([`Enc_utf16_le] or [`Enc_utf16_be]) is usually returned by the parsing
 *   function. The byte order mark is not included into the output string. - 
 *   Some functions of this
 *   module cannot cope with [`Enc_utf16] (i.e. UTF-16 without endianess
 *   annotation), and will fail.
 *
 *   Once the endianess is determined, the code point 0xfeff is no longer
 *   interpreted as byte order mark, but as "zero-width non-breakable space".
 *
 *   Some code points are represented by pairs of 16 bit values, these
 *   are the so-called "surrogate pairs". They can only occur in UTF-16.
 *
 * {b UTF-32:} This is very much the same as for UTF-16. There is a little
 *   endian version [`Enc_utf32_le] and a big endian version [`Enc_utf32_be].
 *
 * {2:subsets Subsets of Unicode}
 *
 * The non-Unicode character sets are subsets of Unicode. Here, it may
 * happen that a Unicode code point does not have a corresponding 
 * code point. In this case, certain rules are applied to handle
 * this (see below). It is, however, ensured that every non-Unicode
 * code point has a corresponding Unicode code point. (In other words,
 * character sets cannot be supported for which this property does
 * not hold.)
 *
 * It is even possible to create further subsets artificially. The
 * encoding [`Enc_subset(e,def)] means to derive a new encoding from
 * the existing one [e], but to only accept the code points for which
 * the definition function [def] yields the value [true]. For example,
 * the encoding 
 * {[ `Enc_subset(`Enc_usascii, 
 *             fun i -> i <> 34 && i <> 38 && i <> 60 && i <> 62) ]}
 * is ASCII without the bracket angles, the quotation mark, and the
 * ampersand character, i.e. the subset of ASCII that can be included
 * in HTML text without escaping.
 *
 * If a code point is not defined by the encoding but found in a text, 
 * the reader will raise the exception [Malformed_code]. When text is
 * output, however, the [subst] function will be called for undefined code 
 * points (which raises [Cannot_represent] by default). The [subst]
 * function is an optional argument of many conversion functions that
 * allows it to insert a substitution text for undefined code points.
 * Note, however, that the substitution text is restricted to at most
 * 50 characters (because unlimited length would lead to difficult
 * problems we would like to avoid).
 *
 * {2:linking Linking this module}
 *
 * Many encodings require lookup tables. The following encodings
 * are built-in and always supported:
 *
 * - Unicode: [`Enc_utf8], [`Enc_java], [`Enc_utf16], [`Enc_utf16_le], 
     [`Enc_utf16_be], [`Enc_utf32], [`Enc_utf32_le], [`Enc_utf32_be]
 * - Other: [`Enc_usascii], [`Enc_iso88591], [`Enc_empty]
 *
 * The lookup tables for the other encodings are usually loaded at
 * runtime, but it is also possible to embed them in the generated
 * binary executable. See {!Netunidata} for details. The functions
 * [available_input_encodings] and [available_output_encodings] can
 * be invoked to find out which encodings can be loaded, or are available
 * otherwise.
 *
 * {2:domain Supported Encodings, Restrictions}
 *
 * I took the mappings from [www.unicode.org], and the standard names of
 * the character sets from IANA. Obviously, many character sets are missing
 * that can be supported; especially ISO646 character sets, and many EBCDIC 
 * code pages. Stateful encodings like generic ISO-2022 have been omitted
 * (stateless subsets of ISO-2022 like EUC can be supported, however;
 * currently we support EUC-JP and EUC-KR).
 *
 * Because of the copyright statement from Unicode, I cannot put the
 * source tables that describe the mappings into the distribution. They
 * are publicly available from [www.unicode.org].
 *
 * {2:problems Known Problems}
 *
 * - The following charsets do not have a bijective mapping to Unicode:
 *   adobe_standard_encoding, adobe_symbol_encoding, 
 *   adobe_zapf_dingbats_encoding, cp1002 (0xFEBE). The current implementation
 *   simply removes one of the conflicting code point pairs - this might
 *   not what you want.
 * - Japanese encodings: 
 *   JIS X 0208: The character 1/32 is mapped to 0xFF3C, and not
 *   to 0x005C.
 *)


(** {1:interface Interface}
 *
 * {b Naming conventions:}
 *
 * As it is possible to refer to substrings by either giving a byte
 * offset or by counting whole characters, these naming conventions
 * are helpful:
 *
 * - Labels called [range_pos] and [range_len] refer to byte positions of
 *   characters, or substrings
 * - Labels called [count] refer to positions given as the number of characters
 *   relative to an origin
 *
 * Furthermore:
 * 
 * - A [uchar] is a single Unicode code point represented as int
 * - A [ustring] is a string of encoded characters
 * - A [uarray] is an [array of int] representing a string
 *)

exception Malformed_code
  (** Raised when an illegal byte sequence is found *)

exception Cannot_represent of int
  (** Raised when a certain Unicode code point cannot be represented in
   * the selected output encoding
   *)


(** The polymorphic variant enumerating the supported encodings. We have:
 * - [`Enc_utf8]: UTF-8
 * - [`Enc_utf8_opt_bom]: UTF-8 with an optional byte order mark at the
 *   beginning of the text
 * - [`Enc_java]: The UTF-8 variant used by Java (the only difference is
 *   the representation of NUL)
 * - [`Enc_utf16]: UTF-16 with unspecified endianess (restricted)
 * - [`Enc_utf16_le]: UTF-16 little endian
 * - [`Enc_utf16_be]: UTF-16 big endian
 * - [`Enc_utf32]: UTF-32 with unspecified endianess (restricted)
 * - [`Enc_utf32_le]: UTF-32 little endian
 * - [`Enc_utf32_be]: UTF-32 big endian
 * - [`Enc_usascii]: US-ASCII (7 bits)
 * - [`Enc_iso8859]{i n}: ISO-8859-{i n}
 * - [`Enc_koi8r]: KOI8-R
 * - [`Enc_jis0201]: JIS-X-0201 (Roman and Katakana)
 * - [`Enc_eucjp]: EUC-JP (code points from US-ASCII, JIS-X-0202, -0208, and
 *   -0212)
 * - [`Enc_euckr]: EUC-KR (code points from US-ASCII, KS-X-1001)
 * - [`Enc_windows]{i n}: WINDOWS-{i n}
 * - [`Enc_cp]{i n}: IBM code page {i n}. Note that there are both ASCII-
 *   and EBCDIC-based code pages
 * - [`Enc_adobe_*]: Adobe-specific encodings, e.g. used in Adobe fonts
 * - [`Enc_mac*]: Macintosh-specific encodings
 * - [`Enc_subset(e,def)]: The subset of [e] by applying the definition 
 *   function [def]
 * - [`Enc_empty]: The empty encoding (does not represent any character)
 *)
type encoding =
  [  `Enc_utf8       (* UTF-8 *)
  |  `Enc_utf8_opt_bom
  |  `Enc_java       (* The variant of UTF-8 used by Java *)
  |  `Enc_utf16      (* UTF-16 with unspecified endianess (restricted usage) *)
  |  `Enc_utf16_le   (* UTF-16 little endian *)
  |  `Enc_utf16_be   (* UTF-16 big endian *)
  |  `Enc_utf32      (* UTF-32 with unspecified endianess (restricted usage) *)
  |  `Enc_utf32_le   (* UTF-32 little endian *)
  |  `Enc_utf32_be   (* UTF-32 big endian *)
  |  `Enc_usascii    (* US-ASCII (only 7 bit) *)
  |  `Enc_iso88591   (* ISO-8859-1 *)
  |  `Enc_iso88592   (* ISO-8859-2 *)
  |  `Enc_iso88593   (* ISO-8859-3 *)
  |  `Enc_iso88594   (* ISO-8859-4 *)
  |  `Enc_iso88595   (* ISO-8859-5 *)
  |  `Enc_iso88596   (* ISO-8859-6 *)
  |  `Enc_iso88597   (* ISO-8859-7 *)
  |  `Enc_iso88598   (* ISO-8859-8 *)
  |  `Enc_iso88599   (* ISO-8859-9 *)
  |  `Enc_iso885910  (* ISO-8859-10 *)
  |  `Enc_iso885911  (* ISO-8859-11 *)
  |  `Enc_iso885913  (* ISO-8859-13 *)
  |  `Enc_iso885914  (* ISO-8859-14 *)
  |  `Enc_iso885915  (* ISO-8859-15 *)
  |  `Enc_iso885916  (* ISO-8859-16 *)
  |  `Enc_koi8r      (* KOI8-R *)
  |  `Enc_jis0201    (* JIS-X-0201 (Roman in lower half; Katakana upper half *)
  |  `Enc_eucjp      (* EUC-JP (includes US-ASCII, JIS-X-0201, -0208, -0212) *)
    (* Japanese, TODO: *)
(*|  `Enc_iso2022jp of jis_state = [ `Enc_usascii | `Enc_jis0201 |
                                     `Enc_jis0208_1978 | `Enc_jis0208_1893 ]
      It is very likely that ISO-2022 will be handled in a different module.
      This encoding is too weird.
  |  `Enc_sjis
*)
  |  `Enc_euckr      (* EUC-KR (includes US-ASCII, KS-X-1001) *)
    (* Older standards: *)
  |  `Enc_asn1_iso646     (* only the language-neutral subset - "IA5String" *)
  |  `Enc_asn1_T61        (* ITU T.61 ("Teletex") *)
  |  `Enc_asn1_printable  (* ASN.1 Printable *)
    (* Microsoft: *)
  |  `Enc_windows1250  (* WINDOWS-1250 *)
  |  `Enc_windows1251  (* WINDOWS-1251 *)
  |  `Enc_windows1252  (* WINDOWS-1252 *)
  |  `Enc_windows1253  (* WINDOWS-1253 *)
  |  `Enc_windows1254  (* WINDOWS-1254 *)
  |  `Enc_windows1255  (* WINDOWS-1255 *)
  |  `Enc_windows1256  (* WINDOWS-1256 *)
  |  `Enc_windows1257  (* WINDOWS-1257 *)
  |  `Enc_windows1258  (* WINDOWS-1258 *)
    (* IBM, ASCII-based: *)
  |  `Enc_cp437
  |  `Enc_cp737
  |  `Enc_cp775
  |  `Enc_cp850
  |  `Enc_cp852
  |  `Enc_cp855
  |  `Enc_cp856
  |  `Enc_cp857
  |  `Enc_cp860
  |  `Enc_cp861
  |  `Enc_cp862
  |  `Enc_cp863
  |  `Enc_cp864
  |  `Enc_cp865
  |  `Enc_cp866
  |  `Enc_cp869
  |  `Enc_cp874
  |  `Enc_cp1006
   (* IBM, EBCDIC-based: *)
  |  `Enc_cp037
  |  `Enc_cp424
  |  `Enc_cp500
  |  `Enc_cp875
  |  `Enc_cp1026
  |  `Enc_cp1047
   (* Adobe: *)
  |  `Enc_adobe_standard_encoding
  |  `Enc_adobe_symbol_encoding
  |  `Enc_adobe_zapf_dingbats_encoding
   (* Apple: *)
  |  `Enc_macroman
   (* Encoding subset: *)
  |  `Enc_subset of (encoding * (int -> bool))
  |  `Enc_empty     (* does not encode any character *)

  ]


(** A [charset] is simply a set of code points. It does not say how
 * the code points are encoded as bytes. Every encoding implies a certain
 * charset (or several charsets) that can be encoded, but the reverse is 
 * not true.
 *)
type charset =
  [  `Set_unicode    (* The full Unicode repertoire *)
  |  `Set_usascii    (* US-ASCII (only 7 bit) *)
  |  `Set_iso88591   (* ISO-8859-1 *)
  |  `Set_iso88592   (* ISO-8859-2 *)
  |  `Set_iso88593   (* ISO-8859-3 *)
  |  `Set_iso88594   (* ISO-8859-4 *)
  |  `Set_iso88595   (* ISO-8859-5 *)
  |  `Set_iso88596   (* ISO-8859-6 *)
  |  `Set_iso88597   (* ISO-8859-7 *)
  |  `Set_iso88598   (* ISO-8859-8 *)
  |  `Set_iso88599   (* ISO-8859-9 *)
  |  `Set_iso885910  (* ISO-8859-10 *)
  |  `Set_iso885911  (* ISO-8859-11 *)
  |  `Set_iso885913  (* ISO-8859-13 *)
  |  `Set_iso885914  (* ISO-8859-14 *)
  |  `Set_iso885915  (* ISO-8859-15 *)
  |  `Set_iso885916  (* ISO-8859-16 *)
  |  `Set_koi8r      (* KOI8-R *)
  |  `Set_jis0201    (* JIS-X-0201 *)
  |  `Set_jis0208    (* JIS-X-0208 *)
  |  `Set_jis0212    (* JIS-X-0212 *)
  |  `Set_ks1001     (* KS-X-1001 *)
  |  `Set_asn1_iso646
  |  `Set_asn1_T61
  |  `Set_asn1_printable
    (* Microsoft: *)
  |  `Set_windows1250  (* WINDOWS-1250 *)
  |  `Set_windows1251  (* WINDOWS-1251 *)
  |  `Set_windows1252  (* WINDOWS-1252 *)
  |  `Set_windows1253  (* WINDOWS-1253 *)
  |  `Set_windows1254  (* WINDOWS-1254 *)
  |  `Set_windows1255  (* WINDOWS-1255 *)
  |  `Set_windows1256  (* WINDOWS-1256 *)
  |  `Set_windows1257  (* WINDOWS-1257 *)
  |  `Set_windows1258  (* WINDOWS-1258 *)
    (* IBM, ASCII-based: *)
  |  `Set_cp437
  |  `Set_cp737
  |  `Set_cp775
  |  `Set_cp850
  |  `Set_cp852
  |  `Set_cp855
  |  `Set_cp856
  |  `Set_cp857
  |  `Set_cp860
  |  `Set_cp861
  |  `Set_cp862
  |  `Set_cp863
  |  `Set_cp864
  |  `Set_cp865
  |  `Set_cp866
  |  `Set_cp869
  |  `Set_cp874
  |  `Set_cp1006
   (* IBM, EBCDIC-based: *)
  |  `Set_cp037
  |  `Set_cp424
  |  `Set_cp500
  |  `Set_cp875
  |  `Set_cp1026
  |  `Set_cp1047
   (* Adobe: *)
  |  `Set_adobe_standard_encoding
  |  `Set_adobe_symbol_encoding
  |  `Set_adobe_zapf_dingbats_encoding
   (* Apple: *)
  |  `Set_macroman
  ]


(** {b Pre-evaluation of the encoding argument:}
 * 
 * A number of the following functions can be made run faster if they are
 * called several times for the same encoding. In this case, it is recommended
 * to apply the function once partially with the encoding argument, and to
 * call the resulting closure instead. For example, [ustring_of_uchar] supports
 * this technique:
 *
 * {[
 *   let my_ustring_of_uchar = ustring_of_uchar my_enc in
 *   let s1 = my_ustring_of_uchar u1 ...
 *   let s2 = my_ustring_of_uchar u2 ... ]}
 *
 * This is {b much} faster than
 *
 * {[
 *   let s1 = ustring_of_uchar my_enc u1 ...
 *   let s2 = ustring_of_uchar my_enc u2 ... ]}
 *
 * The availability of this optimization is indicated by the predicate
 * PRE_EVAL({i arg}) where {i arg} identifies the encoding argument.
 *
 * {b Inlining}
 *
 * When a function can be inlined across module/library boundaries,
 * this is indicated by the predicate INLINED. Of course, this works
 * only for the ocamlopt compiler.
 *)


val encoding_of_string : string -> encoding;;
    (** Returns the encoding of the name of the encoding. Fails if the 
     * encoding is unknown.
     * E.g. [encoding_of_string "iso-8859-1" = `Enc_iso88591] 
     *
     * Punctuation characters (e.g. "-") and year suffixes (e.g.
     * ":1991") are ignored.
     *)


val string_of_encoding : encoding -> string;;
    (** Returns the name of the encoding. *)


val is_ascii_compatible : encoding -> bool;;
    (** "ASCII compatible" means: The bytes 1 to 127 represent the ASCII
     * codes 1 to 127, and no other representation of a character contains
     * the bytes 1 to 127.
     * 
     * For example, ISO-8859-1 is ASCII-compatible because the byte 1 to
     * 127 mean the same as in ASCII, and all other characters use bytes
     * greater than 127. UTF-8 is ASCII-compatible for the same reasons,
     * it does not matter that there are multi-byte characters.
     * EBCDIC is not ASCII-compatible because the bytes 1 to 127 do not mean
     * the same as in ASCII. UTF-16 is not ASCII-compatible because the bytes
     * 1 to 127 can occur in multi-byte representations of non-ASCII
     * characters.
     *
     * The byte 0 has been excluded from this definition because the C
     * language uses it with a special meaning that has nothing to do with
     * characters, so it is questionable to interpret the byte 0 anyway.
     *)


val is_single_byte : encoding -> bool
  (** Returns whether the encoding is a single-byte encoding *)


val same_encoding : encoding -> encoding -> bool
  (** Whether both encodings are the same. [`Enc_subset] encodings are only
   * considered as equal when the definition functions are physically the same.
   *
   * Warning: Don't use ( = ) to compare encodings because this may
   * fail.
   *)


val byte_order_mark : encoding -> string
  (** Returns the byte order mark that must occur at the beginning of
   * files to indicate whether "little endian" or "big endian" is used.
   * If this does not apply to the encoding, an empty string is returned.
   *
   * See also the section about "{!Netconversion.bom}" below.
   *)


val makechar : encoding -> int -> string
  (** [makechar enc i:]
   * Creates the string representing the Unicode code point [i] in encoding
   * [enc]. Raises [Not_found] if the character is legal but cannot be 
   * represented in [enc].
   * 
   * Possible encodings: everything but [`Enc_utf16] and [`Enc_utf32]
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - PRE_EVAL(encoding)
   *
   * @deprecated This function is deprecated since ocamlnet-0.96. Use
   *   [ustring_of_uchar] instead.
   *)


val ustring_of_uchar : encoding -> int -> string
  (** [ustring_of_uchar enc i]:
   * Creates the string representing the Unicode code point [i] in encoding
   * [enc]. Raises [Cannot_represent i] if the character is legal but cannot be 
   * represented in [enc].
   * 
   * Possible encodings: everything but [`Enc_utf16] and [`Enc_utf32].
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - PRE_EVAL(encoding)
   *)


val to_unicode : charset -> int -> int
  (** Maps the code point of the charset to the corresponding 
   * Unicode code point, or raises [Malformed_code], when the
   * input number does not correspond to a code point.
   *
   * Note [`Set_jis0208] and [`Set_jis0212]: Code points are usually
   * given by a row and column number. The numeric code point returned by
   * this function is computed by multiplying the row number (1..94) with 96,
   * and by adding the column number (1..94), i.e. row*96+column.
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - PRE_EVAL(charset)
   *)


val from_unicode : charset -> int -> int
  (** Maps the Unicode code point to the corresponding code point of
   * the charset, or raises [Cannot_represent] when there is no such
   * corresponding code point.
   *
   * Note [`Set_jis0208] and [`Set_jis0212]: Code points are usually
   * given by a row and column number. The numeric code point returned by
   * this function is computed by multiplying the row number (1..94) with 96,
   * and by adding the column number (1..94), i.e. row*96+column.
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - PRE_EVAL(charset)
   *)

val available_input_encodings : unit -> encoding list
  (** Returns the list of all available encodings that can be used for
   * input strings. The list reflects the set of loadable/linked [Netmapping]
   * modules.
   *)


val available_output_encodings : unit -> encoding list
  (** Returns the list of all available encodings that can be used for
   * output strings. The list reflects the set of loadable/linked [Netmapping]
   * modules.
   *)

val user_encoding : unit -> encoding option
  (** Determines the preferred user encoding:

      - Unix: This is the character set from the current locale
      - Win32: This is derived from the current ANSI code page

      If an error occurs while determining the result, the value
      [None] is returned.
   *)

val win32_code_pages : (int * encoding) list
  (** Mapping between Win32 code page numbers and Ocamlnet encodings.
      This is incomplete. The official list:
      http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd317756%28v=VS.85%29.aspx
   *)



(**********************************************************************)
(* Conversion between character encodings                             *)
(**********************************************************************)

(** {2:direct_conv Direct Conversion} *)

(** In order to convert a string from one encoding to another, call
 * [convert] like in
 *
 * {[ let s_utf8 = 
 *    convert ~in_enc:`Enc_iso88591 ~out_enc:`Enc_utf8 s_latin1 ]}
 *
 * which converts the ISO-8859-1 string [s_latin1] to the UTF-8 string
 * [s_utf8].
 *
 * It is also possible to convert while reading from or writing to a file.
 * This use case is effectively handled by the class 
 * {!Netconversion.conversion_pipe}.
 * See the explanations of this class for examples.
 *)


val convert : ?subst:(int -> string) ->
              in_enc:encoding -> 
              out_enc:encoding ->
              ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int ->
	      string ->
                string 
  (** Converts the string from [in_enc] to [out_enc], and returns it.
   * The string must consist of a whole number of characters. If it
   * ends with an incomplete multi-byte character, however, this is
   * detected, and the exception [Malformed_code] will be raised.
   * This exception is also raised for other encoding errors in the
   * input string.
   *
   * @param subst This function is invoked for code points of [in_enc] that
   *   cannot be represented in [out_enc], and the result of the function 
   *   invocation is substituted (directly, without any further conversion).
   *   Restriction: The string returned by [subst] must not be longer than 50
   *   bytes.
   *   If [subst] is missing, [Cannot_represent] is raised in this case.
   *
   * @param range_pos Selects a substring for conversion. [range_pos]
   *   is the byte position of the first character of the substring.
   *   (Default: 0)
   *
   * @param range_len Selects a substring for conversion. [range_len]
   *   is the length of the substring in bytes (Default: Length
   *   of the input string minus [range_pos])
   *)


val recode_string : in_enc:encoding -> 
                    out_enc:encoding ->
		    ?subst:(int -> string) ->
		    string ->
                    string 
  (** Recodes a complete string from [in_enc] to [out_enc], and returns it.
   * The function [subst] is invoked for code points of [in_enc] that cannot
   * be represented in [out_enc], and the result of the function invocation
   * is substituted.
   * Restriction: The string returned by [subst] must not be longer than 50
   * bytes.
   * If [subst] is missing, [Not_found] is raised in this case.
   *
   * @deprecated This function is obsolete since ocamlnet-0.96. Use
   *   [convert] instead.
   *)


val recode : in_enc:encoding -> 
             in_buf:string -> 
	     in_pos:int ->
	     in_len:int -> 
	     out_enc:encoding -> 
	     out_buf:string -> 
	     out_pos:int ->
	     out_len:int ->
	     max_chars:int ->
             subst:(int -> string) -> (int * int * encoding)
  (**
   * Converts the character sequence contained in the at most [in_len] bytes
   * of [in_buf] starting at byte position [in_pos], and writes the result 
   * into at most [out_len] bytes of [out_buf] starting at byte position
   * [out_pos]. At most [max_chars] characters are converted from 
   * [in_buf] to [out_buf].
   *
   * The characters in [in_buf] are assumed to be encoded as [in_enc], and the 
   * characters in [out_buf] will be encoded as [out_enc]. The case
   * [in_enc = out_enc] is not handled specially, and is carried out as
   * fast as any other conversion.
   *
   * If there is a code point which cannot be represented in [out_enc],
   * the function [subst] is called with the code point as argument, and the
   * resulting string (which must already be encoded as [out_enc]) is
   * inserted instead. 
   * It is possible that [subst] is called several times for the same
   * character. Restriction: The string returned by subst must not be longer
   * than 50 bytes.
   *
   * It is allowed that the input buffer ends with an incomplete
   * multi-byte character. This character is not converted, i.e. the
   * conversion ends just before this character. This special condition
   * is not indicated to the caller.
   *
   * @return The triple [(in_n, out_n, in_enc')] is returned:
   * - [in_n] is the actual number of bytes that have been converted from
   *   [in_buf]; [in_n] may be smaller than [in_len] because of incomplete
   *   multi-byte characters, or because the output buffer has less space
   *   for characters than the input buffer, or because of a change
   *   of the encoding variant.
   * - [out_n] is the actual number of bytes written into [out_buf].
   * - [in_enc'] is normally identical to [in_enc]. However, there are cases
   *   where the encoding can be refined when looking at the byte
   *   sequence; for example whether a little endian or big endian variant
   *   of the encoding is used. [in_enc'] is the variant of [in_enc] that was
   *   used for the last converted character.
   *
   * If there is at least one complete character in [in_buf], and at least
   * space for one complete character in [out_buf], and [max_chars >= 1], it is 
   * guaranteed that [in_n > 0 && out_n > 0].
   *)


class conversion_pipe : 
        ?subst:(int -> string) ->
        in_enc:encoding -> 
	out_enc:encoding -> 
	unit ->
	  Netchannels.io_obj_channel
  (** This pipeline class (see [Netchannels] for more information) can be used
   * to recode a netchannel while reading or writing. The argument [in_enc]
   * is the input encoding, and [out_enc] is the output encoding.
   *
   * The channel must consist of a whole number of characters. If it
   * ends with an incomplete multi-byte character, however, this is
   * detected, and the exception [Malformed_code] will be raised.
   * This exception is also raised for other encoding errors in the
   * channel data.
   *
   * {b Example.} Convert ISO-8859-1 to UTF-8 while writing to the file
   * ["output.txt"]:
   * 
   * {[
   *    let ch = new output_channel (open_out "output.txt") in
   *    let encoder = 
   *      new conversion_pipe ~in_enc:`Enc_iso88591 ~out_enc:`Enc_utf8 () in
   *    let ch' = new output_filter encoder ch in
   *    ... (* write to ch' *)
   *    ch' # close_out();
   *    ch  # close_out();  (* you must close both channels! *)
   * ]}
   *
   * If you write as UTF-16, don't forget to output the byte order
   * mark yourself, as the channel does not do this.
   *
   * {b Example.} Convert UTF-16 to UTF-8 while reading from the file
   * ["input.txt"]:
   *
   * {[
   *    let ch = new input_channel (open_in "input.txt") in
   *    let encoder = 
   *      new conversion_pipe ~in_enc:`Enc_utf16 ~out_enc:`Enc_utf8 () in
   *    let ch' = new input_filter ch encoder in
   *    ... (* read from ch' *)
   *    ch' # close_in();
   *    ch  # close_in();  (* you must close both channels! *)
   * ]}
   *
   * @param subst This function is invoked for code points of [in_enc] that
   *   cannot be represented in [out_enc], and the result of the function 
   *   invocation is substituted (directly, without any further conversion).
   *   Restriction: The string returned by [subst] must not be longer than 50
   *   bytes.
   *   If [subst] is missing, [Cannot_represent] is raised in this case.
   *)


class recoding_pipe : 
        ?subst:(int -> string) ->
        in_enc:encoding -> 
	out_enc:encoding -> 
	unit ->
	  Netchannels.io_obj_channel
  (** Recodes a channel like [conversion_pipe]. The difference is that
   * [subst] raises [Not_found] by default, and not [Cannot_represent].
   *
   * @deprecated This class is deprecated since ocamlnet-0.96. Use
   *   [conversion_pipe] instead.
   *)

(**********************************************************************)
(* Cursors                                                            *)
(**********************************************************************)

(** {2:cursors Reading Text Using Cursors}
 * 
 * A cursor is a reference to a character in an encoded string. The
 * properties of the current character can be obtained, and the cursor
 * can be moved relative to its current position.
 *
 * For example, the following loop outputs the Unicode code points
 * of all characters of the UTF-8 input string [s]:
 *
 * {[
 * let cs = create_cursor `Enc_utf8 s in
 * while not (cursor_at_end cs) do
 *   let n = cursor_char_count cs in
 *   let ch = uchar_at cs in
 *   printf "At position %d: %d\n" n ch;
 *   move cs;
 * done
 * ]}
 *
 * For a more exact definition, cursors are modeled as follows: The reference
 * to the encoded string is contained in the cursor. This
 * can be a complete string, or an arbitrary substring (denoted by a
 * range of valid byte positions). The cursor
 * position can be initially set to an arbitrary byte position of the
 * encoded string.
 *
 * Cursor positions can be denoted by
 * - byte positions [p] in the encoded string, or by
 * - character counts [n] relative to the initial position.
 *
 * Valid cursor positions are:
 * - [n=0]: This is always the initial cursor position
 * - [n>0]: Positive char counts refer to characters right to the initial
 *   character. The rightmost position is the position [n_max] past the
 *   rightmost character. The rightmost position does not have a
 *   code point.
 * - [n<0]: Negative char counts refer to characters left to the initial
 *   character. The leftmost position is the position [n_min] of the
 *   leftmost character.
 *
 * For the empty string we have [n_min = n_max = 0], complementing the
 * above definition.
 *
 * Cursors are moved to the left or right of their current position
 * by a whole number of characters. When it is tried to move them
 * past the leftmost or rightmost position, the cursor is placed to the
 * leftmost or rightmost position, respectively, and the exception
 * [Cursor_out_of_range] is raised.
 *
 * There are two cases of illegal encodings:
 * - When the last byte sequence of the encoded string is an incomplete
 *   multi-byte character, this is detected, and the special exception
 *   [Partial_character] is raised when the code point of this character
 *   is read. Note that this can only happen at position [n_max-1]. It
 *   is allowed to move beyond this character to [n_max].
 * - When an illegal byte sequence occurs in the encoded string (including
 *   an incomplete multi-byte character at the beginning of the string),
 *   it is not possible to move the cursor to this character, or across
 *   this character. When it is tried to do so, the cursor stops just
 *   before the bad sequence, and the exception [Malformed_code] is
 *   raised.
 *
 * It is undefined what happens when the encoded string is modified
 * while a cursor is in use referring to it.
 *)

type cursor
  (** A cursor denotes a character position in an encoded string *)

exception End_of_string
  (** Raised when it is tried to access the character after the end of the
   * string (at position [n_max])
   *)

exception Cursor_out_of_range
  (** Raised when it is tried to move the cursor beyond the beginning of the
   * string or beyond the end of the string. In the latter case, it is
   * legal to move the cursor to the position following the last character,
   * but it is not possible to move it further.
   *)

exception Partial_character
  (** Raised when the last character of the string is an incomplete
   * multi-byte character, and it is tried to get the code point
   * (using [uchar_at]).
   *)

exception Byte_order_mark
  (** Raised when it is tried to get the code point of the BOM at the
   * beginning of the string
   *)


val create_cursor : ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int -> 
                    ?initial_rel_pos:int -> 
                    encoding -> string -> cursor
  (** Creates a new cursor for the passed string and the passed encoding.
   * By default, the allowed range of the cursor is the whole string,
   * and the cursor is intially positioned at the beginning of the string.
   * The {b range} is the part of the string the cursor can move within.
   *
   * {b Special behaviour for [`Enc_utf16]/[`Enc_utf32]:} UTF with unspecified
   * endianess is handled specially. First, this encoding is only
   * accepted when [initial_rel_pos=0]. Second, the first two bytes
   * must be a byte order mark (BOM) (if the string has a length of two
   * bytes or more). The BOM counts as character without code point.
   * The function [uchar_at] raises the exception [Byte_order_mark]
   * when the BOM is accessed. Third, when the cursor is moved to the
   * next character, the encoding as returned by [cursor_encoding] is
   * changed to either [`Enc_utf16_le] or [`Enc_utf16_be] according
   * to the BOM. The encoding changes back to [`Enc_utf16] when the
   * cursor is moved back to the initial position.
   *
   * {b Special behavior for [`Enc_utf8_opt_bom]:} Here, a byte order mark
   * at the beginning of the text is recognized, and [uchar_at] will
   * raise [Byte_order_mark]. Unlike in the UTF-16 and 32 cases, the BOM
   * is optional. The function [cursor_encoding] returns [`Enc_utf8]
   * if the cursor is moved away from the BOM, and changes back to
   * [`Enc_utf8_opt_bom] if moved back to the first character.
   *
   * @param range_pos Restricts the range of the cursor to a substring.
   *   The argument [range_pos] is the byte position of the beginning
   *   of the range. (Defaults to 0)
   * @param range_len Restricts the range of the cursor to a substring.
   *   The argument [range_len] is the length of the range.
   *   (Default: Length of the input string minus [range_pos])
   * @param initial_rel_pos The initial position of the cursor, given
   *   as bytes relative to [range_pos]. The character at this position
   *   is considered as the zeroth character of the string (as reported
   *   by [cursor_char_count])
   *)

val reinit_cursor : ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int -> 
                    ?initial_rel_pos:int -> 
                    ?enc:encoding -> string -> cursor -> unit
  (** Reuses an existing cursor for a new purpose. The arguments are
   * as in [create_cursor].
   *)

val copy_cursor : ?enc:encoding -> cursor -> cursor
  (** Copies the cursor. The copy can be moved independently of the original
   * cursor, but is applied to the same string. The copy starts at the
   * byte position of the string where the original cursor is currently
   * positioned.
   *
   * @param enc Optionally, the assumed
   *   encoding can be changed to a different one by passing [enc].
   *)

val cursor_target : cursor -> string
  (** Returns the string of the cursor
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - INLINED
   *)

val cursor_range : cursor -> (int * int)
  (** Returns the valid range of the cursor as pair [(range_pos, range_len)] 
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - INLINED
   *)

val cursor_initial_rel_pos : cursor -> int
  (** Returns the initial relative byte position of the cursor 
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - INLINED
   *)

val cursor_char_count : cursor -> int
  (** Returns the character count of the cursor. The initial position
   * (when [create_cursor] was called) has the number 0, positions to the
   * right denote positive numbers, and positions to the left negative numbers.
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - INLINED
   *)

val cursor_pos : cursor -> int
  (** Returns the byte position of the cursor, i.e. the byte index of
   * the string that corresponds to the cursor position. The function
   * returns the absolute position (i.e. NOT relative to [cursor_range]).
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - INLINED
   *)

val uchar_at : cursor -> int
  (** Returns the Unicode code point of the character at the cursor.
   * Raises [End_of_string] if the cursor is positioned past the last
   * character.
   * Raises [Partial_character] if the last character of the analysed 
   * string range is an incomplete multi-byte character.
   * Raises [Byte_order_mark] if the first character of the string
   * is a BOM (when the encoding has BOMs).
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - INLINED
   *)

val cursor_byte_length : cursor -> int
  (** Returns the byte length of the representation of the character at the
   * cursor. This works also for incomplete multi-byte characters and
   * BOMs.
   * Raises [End_of_string] if the cursor is positioned past the last
   * character. 
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - INLINED
   *)

val cursor_at_end : cursor -> bool
  (** Returns whether the cursor is positioned past the last character.
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - INLINED
   *)

val move : ?num:int -> cursor -> unit
  (** Moves the cursor one character to the right, or if [num] is passed,
   * this number of characters to the right. [num] can be negative in
   * which case the cursor is moved to the left.
   *
   * If the cursor were placed outside the valid range, the cursor
   * would go into an illegal state, and because of this, this is
   * handled as follows: the cursor moves to the
   * leftmost or rightmost position (depending on the direction),
   * and the exception [Cursor_out_of_range] is raised.
   *)

val cursor_encoding : cursor -> encoding
  (** Returns the encoding of the cursor. For some encodings, the
   * returned encoding depends on the position of the cursor (see
   * the note about UTF-8 in [create_cursor])
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - INLINED
   *)

val cursor_blit : cursor -> int array -> int -> int -> int
 (** [cursor_blit cs ua pos len]: Copies at most [len] characters as code
  * points from
  * the cursor position and the following positions to the array [ua]
  * at index [pos]. The number of copied characters is returned.
  * If the cursor is already at the end of the string when this
  * function is called, the exception [End_of_string] will be raised instead,
  * and no characters are copied. The cursor positions containing byte
  * order marks and partial characters are never copied; this is ensured
  * by stopping the copying procedure just before these positions. This
  * may even make the function return the number 0.
  *
  * The function tries to copy as many characters as currently available
  * in the already decoded part of the string the cursor is attached to.
  * In the current implementation, this number is not higher than 250.
  * You can call [cursor_blit_maxlen] to get an upper limit.
  *
  * The function does not move the cursor.
 *)

val cursor_blit_maxlen : cursor -> int
  (** Returns the maximum number of characters [cursor_blit] can copy
   * at the current cursor position. This is the number of characters
   * [cursor_blit] would copy if the [len] argument were arbitrarily
   * large.
   *
   * Note that the value depends on the cursor position and on the
   * contents of the cursor string.
   *
   * This function raises [End_of_string] if the cursor is positioned
   * at the end of the string.
   *)

val cursor_blit_positions : cursor -> int array -> int -> int -> int
  (** Works like [cursor_blit], but copies the byte positions of the
   * characters into [ua] instead of the code points.
   *
   * When called directly after [cursor_blit] for the same cursor and
   * with the same value of [len], this function copies as many characters
   * and thus returns the same number:
   *
   * {[let n1 = cursor_blit     cs ua ua_pos len in
   * let n2 = cursor_blit_pos cs pa pa_pos len in
   * assert (n1 = n2)]}
   *)

(** {3:bom Byte Order Marks}
 *
 * Because UTF-16 allows both little and big endian, files and other
 * permanent representations of UTF-16 text are usually prepended by
 * a byte order mark (BOM). There is confusion about the BOM among
 * Unicode users, so the following explanations may be helpful.
 *
 * Of course, the BOM is only used for external representations like
 * files, as the endianess is always known for in-memory representations
 * by the running program. This module has six encoding identifiers:
 * - [`Enc_utf16]: UTF-16 where the endianess is unknown
 * - [`Enc_utf16_le]: UTF-16 little endian
 * - [`Enc_utf16_be]: UTF-16 big endian
 * - [`Enc_utf32]: UTF-32 where the endianess is unknown
 * - [`Enc_utf32_le]: UTF-32 little endian
 * - [`Enc_utf32_be]: UTF-32 big endian
 *
 * When a file is read, the endianess is unknown at the beginning.
 * This is expressed by e.g. [`Enc_utf16]. When the BOM is read, the encoding
 * is refined to either [`Enc_utf16_le] or [`Enc_utf16_be], whatever
 * the BOM says. This works as follows: The BOM is the representation
 * of the code point 0xfeff as little or big endian, i.e. as byte sequences
 * "0xfe 0xff" (big endian) or "0xff 0xfe" (little endian). As the "wrong"
 * code point 0xfffe is intentionally unused, the reader can determine
 * the endianess.
 *
 * There is one problem, though. Unfortunately, the code point 0xfeff
 * is also used for the normal "zero width non-breakable space" character.
 * When this code point occurs later in the text, it is interpreted as
 * this character. Of course, this means that one must know whether
 * there is a BOM at the beginning, and if not, one must know the
 * endianess. One cannot program in the style "well, let's see what is
 * coming and guess".
 *
 * Unicode also allows a BOM for UTF-8 although it is meaningless to specify
 * the endianess. If you create the cursor with the encoding [`Enc_utf8]
 * nothing is done about this, and you get the BOM as normal character.
 * If you create the cursor with [`Enc_utf8_opt_bom], the BOM is treated
 * specially like in the UTF-16 and -32 cases (with the only difference
 * that it is optional for UTF-8).
 *
 * The functions of this module can all deal with BOMs when reading
 * encoded text. In most cases, the BOM is hidden from the caller,
 * and just handled automatically. Cursors, however, treat BOMs as special
 * characters outside of the code set (exception [Byte_order_mark] is
 * raised). The writing functions of this module do not generate BOMs,
 * however, as there is no way to tell them that a BOM is needed. The
 * function [byte_order_mark] can be used to output the BOM manually.
 *
 * {3 Examples for Cursors}
 *
 * Create the cursor:
 *
 * [ let cs = create_cursor `Enc_utf8 "B\195\164r";; ]
 *
 * The cursor is now positioned at the 'B':
 *
 * [ uchar_at cs ] {i returns} [66] (i.e. B)
 *
 * Move the cursor one character to the right. In UTF-8, this is a
 * two-byte character consisting of the bytes 195 and 164:
 *
 * [ move cs ;; ]
 *
 * [ uchar_at cs ] {i returns} [228] (i.e. a-Umlaut)
 *
 * One can easily move the cursor to the end of the string:
 *
 * [ move ~num:max_int cs ;; ]
 *
 * This raises [Cursor_out_of_range], but places the cursor at the end.
 * This is the position past the last letter 'r':
 * 
 * [ uchar_at cs ] {i raises} [End_of_string]
 *
 * Go one character to the left:
 *
 * [ move ~num:(-1) cs ;; ]
 *
 * [ uchar_at cs ] {i returns} [114] (i.e. r)
 *
 * Cursors can only move relative to their current position. Of course,
 * one can easily write a function that moves to an absolute position,
 * like
 *
 * {[ let move_abs n cs = 
 *    let delta = n - cursor_pos cs in
 *    move ~num:delta cs ]}
 *
 * However, this operation is expensive (O(string length)), and should
 * be avoided for efficient algorithms. Cursors are not arrays, and an
 * algorithm should only be based on cursors when it is possible to
 * iterate over the characters of the string one after another.
 *)

(**********************************************************************)
(* String functions                                                   *)
(**********************************************************************)

(** {2:unicode_functions Unicode String Functions} *)

val ustring_length : 
        encoding -> ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int -> string -> int
  (** Returns the length of the string in characters. The function fails
   * when illegal byte sequences or incomplete characters are found in the
   * string with [Malformed_code].
   *
   * Evaluation hints:
   * - PRE_EVAL(encoding)
   *
   * @param range_pos The byte position of the substring to measure
   *   (default: 0)
   * @param range_len The byte length of the substring to measure
   *   (default: byte length of the input string minus [range_pos])
   *)

val ustring_iter : 
       encoding ->
       (int -> unit) ->
       ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int ->
       string ->
	 unit
  (** Iterates over the characters of a string, and calls the passed function
   * for every code point. The function raises [Malformed_code] when
   * illegal byte sequences or incomplete characters are found.
   *
   * @param encoding specifies the encoding
   * @param range_pos The byte position of the substring to iterate over
   *   (default: 0)
   * @param range_len The byte length of the substring to iterate over
   *   (default: byte length of the input string minus [range_pos])
   *)

val ustring_map :
       encoding ->
       (int -> int list) ->
       ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int ->
       string ->
	 string
  (** Maps every character of a string to a list of characters, and returns
   * the concatenated string. 
   * The [encoding] argument determines the encoding of both the argument
   * and the result string.
   * The map function gets every character as its Unicode code point, and
   * must return the list of code points to map to.
   *
   * The function raises [Malformed_code] when
   * illegal byte sequences or incomplete characters are found.
   *
   * @param range_pos The byte position of the substring to map
   *   (default: 0)
   * @param range_len The byte length of the substring to map
   *   (default: byte length of the input string minus [range_pos])
   *)

val ustring_to_lower : encoding -> ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int ->
                       string -> string
  (** Converts the input string to lowercase.

      The [encoding], [range_pos], and [range_len] arguments work
      as for [ustring_map]. The exception [Malformed_code] is raised
      when illegal byte sequences are found.
   *)

val ustring_to_upper : encoding -> ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int ->
                       string -> string
  (** Converts the input string to uppercase.

      The [encoding], [range_pos], and [range_len] arguments work
      as for [ustring_map]. The exception [Malformed_code] is raised
      when illegal byte sequences are found.
   *)

val ustring_to_title : encoding -> ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int ->
                       string -> string
  (** Converts the input string to titlecase.

      The [encoding], [range_pos], and [range_len] arguments work
      as for [ustring_map]. The exception [Malformed_code] is raised
      when illegal byte sequences are found.
   *)

val ustring_sub :
       encoding ->
       int ->
       int ->
       ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int ->
       string ->
	 string
  (** [ustring_sub enc start length s]: Returns the substring of [s] starting
   * at character count [start] and consisting of [length] characters. Note
   * that [start] and [length] select the substring by multiples of
   * (usually multibyte) characters, not bytes.
   *
   * If the optional byte-based [range_pos] and [range_len] arguments are
   * present, these arguments are taken to determine a first substring
   * before [start] and [length] are applied to extract the final
   * substring.
   *
   * The function raises [Malformed_code] when
   * illegal byte sequences or incomplete characters are found.
   *
   * @param range_pos The byte position of the substring to extract
   *   (default: 0)
   * @param range_len The byte length of the substring to extract
   *   (default: byte length of the input string minus [range_pos])
   *)

val ustring_compare :
      encoding ->
      (int -> int -> int) ->
       ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int ->
      string ->
       ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int ->
      string ->
	int
  (** Compares two strings lexicographically. The first argument is the
   * encoding of both strings (which must be the same). The second argument
   * is the function that compares two Unicode code points. It must return
   * 0 if both characters are the same, a negative value if the first
   * character is the smaller one, and a positive value if the second
   * character is the smaller one.
   *
   * The function raises [Malformed_code] when
   * illegal byte sequences or incomplete characters are found.
   *
   * @param range_pos The byte position of the substring to compare
   *   (default: 0), referring to the following string argument
   * @param range_len The byte length of the substring to compare
   *   (default: byte length of the input string minus [range_pos]),
   *   referring to the following string argument
   *)

val code_cmp : int -> int -> int
  (** A compare function for [ustring_compare]: Normal string comparison:
      This function compares by code point
   *)

val ci_code_cmp : int -> int -> int
  (** A compare function for [ustring_compare]: Case-insensitive comparison:
      This function compares by the lowercase code point if it exists, 
      and the untransformed code point otherwise.

      NB. This bases on the lowercase transformation that maps one char
      to only one char, and not to many.
   *)

val uarray_of_ustring : 
    encoding -> 
    ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int ->
    string -> 
      int array
  (** Returns the characters of the string as array of Unicode code points.
   * 
   * @param range_pos The byte position of the substring to extract
   *   (default: 0)
   * @param range_len The byte length of the substring to extract
   *   (default: byte length of the input string minus [range_pos])
   *)


val ustring_of_uarray :
    ?subst:(int -> string) ->
    encoding ->
    ?pos:int -> ?len:int ->
    int array ->
      string
  (** Returns the array of Unicode code points as encoded string.
   * 
   * @param pos Selects a subarray: [pos] is the first array position
   *   to encode (default: 0)
   * @param len Selects a subarray: [len] is the length of the subarray
   *   to encode (default: array length minus [pos])
   * @param subst This function is called when a code point cannot be represented
   *   in the chosen character encoding. It must returns the (already encoded)
   *   string to substitute for this code point. By default (if ~subst is
   *   not passed), the exception [Cannot_represent] will be raised in this
   *   case.
   *)

exception Malformed_code_at of int
  (** An illegal byte sequence is found at this byte position *)

val verify : encoding -> ?range_pos:int -> ?range_len:int -> string -> unit
  (** Checks whether the string is properly encoded. If so, () is returned.
   * If not, the exception [Malformed_code_at] will be raised indicating 
   * the byte position where the problem occurs.
   *
   * @param range_pos The byte position of the substring to verify
   *   (default: 0)
   * @param range_len The byte length of the substring to verify
   *   (default: byte length of the input string minus [range_pos])
   *)

(**********************************************************************)

(* Internal *)

(**/**)

val big_slice : int
  (* The length of the normal cursor slices. A "small slice" has always
   * length 1.
   *)

val read_iso88591_ref :
  (int -> encoding -> int array -> int array -> string -> 
     int -> int -> (int*int*encoding)) ref

val read_utf8_ref :
  (bool -> int array -> int array -> string -> int -> int -> (int*int*encoding)) 
  ref

 (* The two read_* variables are initialised with default implementations.
  * They are overriden by Netaccel (if linked)
  *)

val internal_name : charset -> string
  (* map charset to the key used in the lookup table *)